When planning and executing my fund-raising run to Phoenix, from time to time I would have a day or two of intense activity where I put my plans out there; reaching out to businesses for sponsor-ships, designing and refining my Press Releases, mailing them off or hand-delivering them to radio stations, television stations and newspaper offices.

Then? I would wait.

It often felt like the world was defiantly pessimistic regarding my efforts and had settled on a general policy of resistance to anything I tried to do. I was swimming up-stream and getting nowhere. Or, at least, that’s how it felt. I would feel down and beaten.

But then, when I was at my lowest and feeling like everything I was doing was for nothing – a reply would come back from one of my would-be sponsors offering a gift certificate or some form of sponsorship that I had asked for. Or, I would find out that Better than Ever was supplying t-shirts to my fund-raising efforts at no charge. Some bit of good news would finally break and for at least a little while, I was hitting on all cylinders again – completely energized and ready to cycle into another whirlwind of activity. So I kept working and kept grinding, and it turned out pretty great.

It’s easy to get burned out and bummed out when there’s no response or no reward or recognition for your efforts. Even in running, if you keep doing your workouts and you don’t feel any stronger or faster, and you don’t think you can really go any further, it’s easy to consider and maybe even act on just quitting. You might tell yourself, ‘Let’s be honest here, I’ve given it the ol’ college try and it’s just not working out for me’. Maybe you’ve even raced a 5k or two and your times aren’t budging and you think that all your work is going to go unrewarded – ‘you’re never going to be a real runner.’

Whether you keep at it with a slow but unrelenting frequency, or you keep at it with a solid plan and a regular frequency of workouts, you will still improve; in running, in relationships, in life, in success, in education, in self-esteem, in building positive cognative habits (Thanks Robot Leggs!). Where ever it is in your life, where ever you practice with dedication and with consistency, you will improve.

The trick is to remain committed and consistent enough with your scheduling and planning so that the gaps in achievement are not tremendous waste-lands of inactivity, but instead, each effort, each practice is linked closely with the one before, and the next one.. and the next one, and so on.

With creaking and groaning, the immovable objects in your life will begin to become dislodged and surrender to your persistence; and they will be removed.. if you don’t get bummed out, if you don’t get burned out and if you don’t ever give up.